Welcome to Contemplative Light. We're so delighted you've found us!

Mystical Practice. Inner Transformation.

We are a network of teachers and writers that provide resources for contemplatives, wayfarers, and healers, drawing on the Christian contemplative tradition, as well as highlights from other disciplines like Psychology, Philosophy, and Integral Theory.

We provide:

Courses on the Contemplative Tradition

Courses on Contemplative Practices & Healing

Courses on the Christian Mystics

Courses on Integral Christianity

Contemplative Circles for connecting with others in community

Resources for chaplains and small group leaders

Resources for Contemplative Retreats

Resources for spiritual directors

Spiritual direction and coaching

Ongoing blogs and social media encouragement

Community and opportunity for publication for contemplative writers

Contemplative retreats

Our mystical practices have been formed by the rich tradition of Christian monastics and mystics, from 20th century writers like Thomas Merton and Evelyn Underhill, to Meister Eckhart, Pseudo-Dionysius, John Cassian, and the early Desert Fathers and Mothers.

But more importantly, our teachings and writings draw on our years of experience with practices like Centering Prayer, Lectio Divina, spiritual direction, Christian Meditation, the Jesus Prayer, and so on.

Our Mission

Helping contemplatives, leaders, and healers experience and pass on inner wholeness through contemplative teaching and practice.

We've experienced the profound healing available through the divine transformation as we consent to the presence and action of God within. But there are many unconscious attachments that keep us from this state of awareness on a moment-to-moment basis. Our mission is to help you and those you serve experience this kind of wholeness.

Drawing on contemplative teachers down through the centuries and across disciplines, our mission has three core components:

Silence. Practice. Healing.

Silence. As guides along this path, our task is to help others experience the divine presence available to us in silence. The Aramaic word for prayer means "to open ourselves to God." We do this through verbal, reflective, and contemplative prayer. the deepest intimacy with the divine presence is this final contemplative prayer, or "silent resting in God," when we realize our inmost self abides in God. We help others remove the inner obstacles that keep them from this state of awareness.

Practice. We are practice-centered in our approach. Any teaching can remain stuck in the head and in community we might fashion an identity for others. It is in practice we are transformed into our True Selves. This inward movement has to be accompanied by an outward movement of service to God, others, and creation. This overflowing, transformational grace cannot be hoarded, but naturally flows outward into the world.

Healing. The ultimate goal of the Christian path is a series of humiliations to the false self such that we move humbly into the space of receptivity to the divine union with God. This is an inner transformation of wholeness and an outward movement of shalom, much more than peace or absence of conflict, but health, balance, vitality, wholeness, and justice. Like the divine dance of the Trinity, a flowing love between the three, the healing of self, other, and creation, is part of an ongoing divine process of transformation we have to consent to.

What We Believe

We believe Jesus is the archetypal paradigm of inner transformation through suffering, forgiveness, and grace. When he asks us to follow him or offering us to drink from his cup, this is the refining process he guides us through.

This is the truth of the suffering servant, the way of the cross and resurrection, and the life of divine union in love. Contemplatives simply understand we are invited to walk this path of dying to our own False Self, our egocentric habits and allow ourselves to be formed and transformed by this way of suffering and committed individual practice.

We believe this path is open for everyone willing to be radically transformed by entering deeply into their own suffering and that of the world. Some who come to us arrive through a more traditional Christian background, while others identify as "spiritual-not-religious," but are looking to root themselves more in the Christian Mystical Path.

Contemplative Light, our founding members, and our staff are open to accepting everyone and helping them grow spiritually, regardless of personal beliefs, race, cultural background, or sexual orientation. Our Gospel is ecumenical and inclusive. We believe this path toward inner wholeness is available to everyone.

Get acquainted with some of the contemplative practices from the Christian tradition, like Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina.